Skills and Drills: Carolina Panthers 45-degree downhill break – defensive backs

By Frank Bartscheck | Posted 9/27/2016

Darrelle Revis may want to revisit this drill.

After all, ESPN stated late last season, “It's what he does Monday to Saturday that makes him special.”

The New York Jets’ starting cornerback, who trademarked and popularized the concept of Revis Island, is considered the best shutdown cornerback ever to play in the NFL by numerous pundits and players.

At the height of his ability, every quarterback in the NFL feared throwing in Revis’ direction.

The Jets leveraged their future to select Revis in the 2007 NFL Draft, trading a first-, second- and fifth-round pick to the Carolina Panthers to jump from No. 25 overall to No. 14 in order to take the Pitt standout.

Interestingly, on an aside, the Panthers selected Pro-Bowl center Ryan Khalil with the Jets’ second round pick in a draft that has been heralded by Bleacher Report as the greatest draft class in the past 25 years.

Eric Mangini, then the coach of the New York Jets, was involved in the decision to move up and draft Revis.

“He doesn’t open the gate [on press coverage] and allow the receiver to release vertically and allow entry into the secondary,” said Mangini on the NFL Network.

Essentially, one of the things that made Revis so exceptional at covering elite receivers in the NFL was his ability to quickly play the angles. Even in press coverage, he could stay in a receiver’s hip pocket no matter what type of release or route a receiver ran.

For example, during the 2010 wild-card playoff game between the Colts and the Jets, future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning was without his favorite target. Reggie Wayne, who had over 1,300 yards and six touchdowns during the regular season, was stuck on Revis Island throughout the game.

Manning only dared to throw in Wayne’s direction once throughout the game. The pass was completed for only one yard and the Jets won a by the score of 17-16.

However, something has changed that has more receivers visiting Revis Island than ever before.

Even at the tail end of last season, Revis was losing position and getting knocked off his angles.


Above photo courtesy of NFL.com

Above, you can see Buffalo Bills wide receiver Sammy Watkins matched up against Revis during a week six match up last season. 

Revis is in press coverage to begin the play. Watkins uses a quick finesse move to turn Revis in the wrong direction and get vertical on his route.

The result is Revis is immediately out of position and will spend the remainder of the play attempting to regain position. As a result, Revis will not be able to play his angles or break on the ball once it is thrown. He will be unable to make any game-changing plays and can only hope to recover enough to eliminate a reception.

Unfortunately, this seems to be happening to Revis even more often through three weeks this season.

Revis has already surrendered 173 yards in three weeks, which puts him on pace to surrender 922.66 yards this season. That is almost the combined number of yards he allowed in the previous two seasons.

The video below is of a play against the Cincinnati Bengals’ receiver A.J. Green in week one. 

Again, Revis is in press coverage to begin the play and Green, similar to Watkins, uses a finesse release to shake the coverage. In his early days in the NFL, Revis would have broken on this ball and either broken the play up or made an interception.

Instead, he is unable to execute a 45-degree break while running downhill to gain ground and is instead beaten by Green for an important first down.

The purpose of the drill is to teach defensive backs the proper mechanics of transitioning from a back-pedal into a 45-degree break while running downhill to gain ground and make the interception.

Drill Setup

Use a coach to imitate the quarterback and rotate two defensive backs throughout the duration of the drill.

The most effective setup utilizes the chalk lines on the field. Position the coach/quarterback on either sidelines standing perpendicular to the chalk line. Place the two defensive backs directly across from the coach/quarterback with a chalked yard line between them.

On either side of the coach/quarterback and ten yards down the sideline in either direction, place a coach who will be the aiming point for the 45-degree downhill break.

Key Coaching Points

On the whistle, defensive backs should quickly backpedal, while maintaining a good base and low hips, until the coach again blows the whistle.

On the second whistle, the two defensive backs should snap their hips open toward the second coach ten yards down the sideline in order to locate the receiver, find the quarterback and make the interception.

Players running the drill should concentrate on keeping hips low and shoulders over the balls of their feet to maintain a good solid base.

Throughout the drill, players should concentrate on moving their feet quickly, maintaining good balance and remaining ready to quickly change directions to break on the ball.

In anticipation of breaking quickly on the ball, players should shorten their arm movement and stride length, get their feet properly placed under their hips and immediately hit the 45-degree downhill break.

If you are preparing to play a team that runs a lot of square-in or square-out receiver routes, you can adjust this drill to accommodate the 90-dgree breaks.   


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